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The content of Informal Coalitions is summarized below. Preface * Highlights the high failure rate of organizational change programs. * Sets out the background to, and origins of, the informal coalitions perspective. * Identifies some of the key features that distinguish Informal Coalitions from other books that repackage the more conventional approaches to organizational change. * Outlines the broad structure of the book and how readers can get the best out of it.

Global (e.g. organization-wide) patterns emerge from everyday 'local' (i.e. one-to-one or small-group) conversations. The more that people (in interaction) make sense of events and take action in particular ways, the more likely they are to make similar sense and take similar actions in the future. That is, from an informal coalitions perspective, these patterns are not formed by managerial dictat or design but by the nature of the everyday sensemaking that has gone before.

The Cognitive Edge weblog contains an interesting exchange on the nature and role of storytelling in organizations. It was prompted by blog author Dave Snowden's reading of an article by Gabrielle Dolan of One Thousand and One, an Australian consultancy specialising in storytelling as a tool for organisational development. Dave Snowden is well known for his work on the role of narrative and complexity theory in organizational sensemaking.